Tuesday, February 03, 2009

14-year-old girl zapped in cell for peeling paint off the wall

The father of a 14-year-old mentally challenged girl who was TASER™ed in her jail cell for peeling paint off the wall is suing the Ontario Provincial Police on her behalf.

"Ontario's provincial advocate for children and youth, Irwin Elman, who has reviewed a videotape of the incident and the OPP's internal investigation, said he can't understand why police needed to stun the girl, who was lying on a cot when the two officers entered her cell and allegedly zapped her.

"I can tell you from what I saw there was no harm to herself or to any other person. It's not proportional to use a Taser... . It's a 14-year-old child in a cell, not harming herself or anybody else," said Elman, Ontario's independent children's advocate.

"The lawsuit, filed Jan. 23 at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Kenora, says the officers entered the cell without warning, "violently" pulled the girl to the ground and applied the Taser to her right upper thigh for three to five seconds."


"A doctor who examined the girl in the hours after the incident reportedly observed twin burn marks on her thigh."

"OPP spokesman Insp. Dave Ross said yesterday the force was not contesting that the girl had been Tasered, but that the OPP's professional standards bureau completed an investigation in December 2008 and cleared officers of any wrongdoing.

You're shocked and surprised at the results of the OPP professional standards bureau investigation I'm sure. Did I mention she is First Nations?
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That makes me so angry. Horrible, horrible violence against the most defenseless of victims. A lawsuit is such an inadequate remedy to such injustice. But I wish the father success in that regard.

Oemissions said...

Shocking, indeed!

Anonymous said...

Gee.... imagine that, the OPP investigates themselves and determines that they did nothing wrong -- who would have thunk that would have happened?

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